The healthcare sector currently stands at $40 billion and is estimated to reach a size of $142 billion by 2020. Technical textiles is expected to benefit immensely from this growth. This is because the technical textiles usage by the healthcare sector is expected to rise to $ 1 billion by 2016-17 from $409 million. These details are highlighted in the latest report on “Apparel and Fashion Accessories Industry” launched by IndiaMART Knowledge Services (IKS), an in-house research unit at IndiaMART.com, exclusively for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The comprehensive report collates significant information on the apparel and textile industry available in reports and studies by different organisations.
The IKS report also includes an exclusive analysis of apparel sector data on IndiaMART.com marketplace and draws attention to the growing online business activity among SMEs in the sector. Apart from this, it focuses on the current market trends and business sentiments amongst SMEs in the apparel sector. The IKS report is intended to help SMEs identify areas of growth for business and tap them to their advantage.

On the report launch, Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART.com said, “We have been closely working with SMEs for many years now. What compelled us to go ahead and create such a comprehensive industry report was the need for updated sectoral information and insights which could be useful to the SMEs. While working on the report, we were able to identify growth areas for SMEs, one of which is the technical textile segment. It has immense growth opportunities to offer to them as this industry is likely to grow to $31.4 billion. With such in-depth analysis, we hope SMEs in this sector find this report as a ready reckoner for their businesses. This will be followed by other such sector-specific reports.”

Key highlights of the report include:
– Apparel SMEs in metros more active on internet than in tier-II & III cities
– Online business activity among SMEs in the sector surged by 38.7% this year as compared to last year
– High majority have an optimistic outlook with respect to sales in the near future, suggests IKS survey of SMEs in the apparel sector
– Export market is expected to touch $43 billion while domestic market will reach to $57 billion by 2015
– India has the potential to increase its share of textile and apparel in world trade to 8% from current level of 4.5%

The Indian Apparel & Fashion Accessories sector is one of the most important industries in the economy owing to the status it has earned of being the largest exchange earner and one of the biggest employment generating sectors.
The report worked its way inside the industry and also captured SMEs’ viewpoint on major issues, market growth, lack of proper credit facilities, exports et al.